momoyoga

This is an email message I sent to Bikram and Rajashree about the 3rd awkward pose:

I am 46 years old and has been very athletic all my life.
for the past 25 years I have undergone three left knee surgeries (ACLS tear with reconstruction from tennis, meniscus tear and femoral condyle fracture from racquetbal. the most recent about one year ago for bucket handle meniscus tear which I think its from the awkward pose #3). I also have an extensive medical background.

I want to ask you to clarify this posture with your bikram teachers.

First of all, I am somewhat frustrated by the “push until it hurts” repeated by the teacher. students can easily hurts themselves without understanding their limits. One can get meniscus tear from improper axial loading, facet arthropathy from overtwisting of the spine etc.

Don’t get me wrong. Thanks to Bikram yoga. I am discovering the various aspect of yoga. I am still doing Bikram about 2-3 x a week and have started to explore ashtanga yoga.

The reason for this email is to have you consider evaluating the awkward pose #3.

I have done a lot of research on this after my last surgery. Both my orthopedist surgeon and my physical therapist told me NOT to do this valgus move. The loading on the valgus (bow leg) knee can easily damage the meniscus. Even when I started Bikram, I can do this posture easily without any problem. Thinking to myself that I am building the quadricep muscle which it’s true. about a couple years into it, i slowly notice my knee was aching. however I continue to do this posture (have been told that there is a lot of scientific background behind each move). Eventually I was having sharp pain like a catching feeling with this pose. Had an MRi done and showed a bucket handle tear to my meniscus. my surgery is over a year ago now….

Almost every class I have to remind the teacher that I do NOT do this valgus move. Instead I modify it by putting my feet back together instead of 6″ apart….

As you know the least strain on the knee on any flexion movement is the knee over the foot. This valgus awkward move puts a lots of strain on the knee.

So please consider evaluating the physiologic appropriateness of the awkward pose #3.

It scares me when I see new students trying to do this (just like students in the standing head to knee pose: instead of contracting the quadricep on the standing leg, they are hyperextending the leg like a bow. That is also very bad on the knee joint)….